This is something that I get asked by students fairly regularly. Not frequently, but it always crops up. So, here's my story:

I grew up in the 1970s and 1980s (born in 1974) and the nuclear threat was all around. As I child I wasn't aware of this, being more concerned with Lego and building dangerous BMX jumps out of scrap wood). IN 1984, though, the BBC screened a film called Threads and despite me being just a kid, I was allowed to watch it with my parents. That damn film gave me nightmares for weeks. It really is the most searing depiction of nuclear war ever made.

My interest in the Cold War and nuclear weapons in particular stems from me - as an adult - trying to find out why I was so terrified as a child and understanding why this terrifying technology existed and what effect it had upon the world. Of course, I didn't become an academic history straight away. After my undergraduate degree I worked in marketing and advertising for the best part of a decade before doing my Masters in 2088-2009 and my PhD 2010-2014. I wanted to get out of working an office job and do something that genuinely excited and interested me. And I've been lucky enough to land a permanent university job as a historian, something that's basically blind luck in the current climate.

So there you go: childhood nightmares + working in a boring job = ending up doing what I do now.

Malcolm